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The Allen & Sara Shepherd History Scholarship

This $500 scholarship is given annually in honor of Clio, the Greek muse of history. Its purpose is to encourage the study of and the appreciation for the past and to strengthen the history program at Chadron State College.

Each candidate must be a History major/endorsement or minor, or a Social Science field endorsement or minor.

Each candidate must be a full-time student at CSC.

Each candidate must be returning to CSC the academic year following the award.

Past scholastic performance and future promise of the candidate are factors. An overall GPA of 3.0 is a minimum academic requirement.

Contributions to and/or membership in Phi Alpha Theta and the Campus Historical Forum are considerations.

Financial need of the candidate is not necessarily a factor.

If no candidates are deemed worthy, the award will not be given.

Application materials may be secured from Dr. Joel Hyer at any time after the beginning of the spring semester. The completed application must be returned by March 1. The Committee will determine the recipient based on Dr. Joel Hyer's recommendation. Half of the award will be given the first week of fall semester; the second half will be given the first week of spring semester.

“Books impart knowledge, but travel gives wisdom” says an old Turkish proverb. Allen as a small boy often visited the C.B. & Q. Railroad station in his hometown Madrid and mused as to where that train had come from and where was it going. He spent his life finding out what was “beyond the horizon”. He visited and traveled in some 76 major places around the world, taking some dozen tours with students to Europe, Mexico and Hawaii, one of them being Nebraska Semester Abroad in Europe (1992). He had a Fulbright to Turkey (1988), was a Malone Fellow to Saudi Arabia and Bahrain and had five National Endowments for the Humanities summer seminar grants within the U.S. He served a year in Korea as part of his military duty. Dr. Shepherd was awarded his Ph.D. at the University of Nebraska and also studied at Oxford University in England. After obtaining his degree he initially taught history at Nebraska Wesleyan University, joined the faculty at Chadron State College in 1972. While teaching at CSC his courses ranged widely, from the “Asian Cultural Realm” to “Imperial Russia” to “The Ottoman Centuries” and “Modern Germany”. He also published two books and a number of articles and delivered numerous scholarly papers at conferences.

Sára László was born in Dunaszentgyörgy, Hungary, experiencing the convulsions of World War Two, the Sovietization of her country and the Revolution of 1956. As a result of the latter experience she fled to Hungary and came to the United States, studying chemistry at the University of Nebraska, where she met Allen. She was employed at Dow Corning in Midland, Michigan prior to joining her husband who was in the military at Ft. Benning, Georgia. She did research at the University while Allen was in graduate school and started a family, son Philip and daughter Lydia. The family lived for a year in Cozad, Nebraska, came back to Lincoln for several years where she also was certified as a Medical Technologist, then moved to Chadron in 1972. Sara spent 24 years as a Medical Technologist at the Crawford Community Hospital, retiring in 1997. She also loved to travel, returning to her native land, Hungary, several times since she left. Sára was an excellent cook, organizing the International Cuisine Society among friends in Chadron. She also loved to garden, always having a profusion of flowers in and around her home at 727 Bordeaux Street.